Baby steps (pun intended)

Just a quick post to let you know I just spoke with the Genetic Counselor that Bob and I met with last Wednesday as part of the “First Trimester Ultra-Screen” test. It is a combined ultrasound and blood screen that helps identify babies who may have Down syndrome, Trisomy 13 or Trisomy 18. Our results are based on odds that our baby might have any of these three chromosomal disorders. Prior to the test, based on my age (34) our baby had a 1 in 339 chance of having Down syndrome and a 1 in 622 chance of having Trisomy 13 or 18. Based on the test results, our baby’s risk of having Down syndrome has been significantly reduced to 1 in 4,928 and it’s risk of having Trisomy 13 or 18 has also been greatly reduced to less than 1 in 10,000.

We continue to realize that there are no guarantees, but do find hope in these results that our baby may not have any chromosomal disorders.

In case I haven’t made it clear in the past, it was determined from Molly’s autopsy that despite the very rare, severe and fatal combination of congenital heart defects that she had, which are sometimes linked with chromosomal disorders, Molly was found not to have any chromosomal disorders.

Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, thoughts and prayers. We are grateful to have made it this far, 13 weeks by my last menstrual period, though our baby has consistently measured bigger which would put us closer to 14 weeks gestation (the beginning of our second trimester — a big milestone). I will keep you posted.